Bandai Namco has announced Little Nightmares 3, the third game in its horror-themed platforming franchise. Development on the game is being handled by UK studio Supermassive Games, best known for its narrative horror adventure games like Until Dawn, The Quarry, and The Dark Pictures Anthology series.
Supermassive Games previously worked on an enhanced edition of Little Nightmares 2 for current-generation consoles, which was released in 2021 for PS5 and Xbox Series X. The series was previously created and developed by Tarsier Studios from Sweden, who cut their teeth on assisting with the LittleBigPlanet series.
Read: The Quarry Review – A Supermassive achievement in horror
Little Nightmares 3 revolves around two new masked children, named Low and Alone, who find themselves journeying through a series of dystopian lands called The Spiral. The game leans heavily on cooperative puzzles, and will be playable online or solo with a CPU-controlled companion.
Low and Alone each have their own unique tools, which will play key parts. Alone has a wrench, which can be used to break down walls and manipulate objects, and Low has a bow and arrow, which is used exactly the way you think it’s used.
Little Nightmares 3 is slated for release in 2024 on PC, PS5, PS4,
Bandai Namco also announced the release of a Little Nightmare-related podcast series, called Sounds of Nightmares. Consisting of 6 episodes, the series will tell an original story that will tie to the lore of existing and future worlds of Little Nightmares.
Little Nightmares 3 – Extended Gameplay Demo Preview
Bandai Namco demonstrated a pre-alpha build of Little Nightmares 3 to GamesHub and other press prior to the game’s announcement. It was an impressive look at the game’s well-refined aesthetic, with an eerie new location, several environmental puzzles, and one big baby. Here’s a recap of what we saw.
Beginning in an eerie desert environment, Low and Alone make their way across the desert and eventually, they stumbled upon the walls of a city known as The Necropolis, a ghost town blanketed in a sandstorm.
As they climb the walls and make their way into the ruins of a building, they work together to push aside a shelf and enter the main town, orange with sand, low on visibility. A giant baby’s pacifier ominously hangs from a wooden beam as frayed windmills slowly turn in the background.
Low uses his bow to shoot down a box hanging from a rope, which creates a path into an adjoining building. After the two enter a gear-filled room and make their way across precarious beams and machinery, Alone uses her wrench to extend a bridge. Low crosses it and shoots down a counterweight, allowing it to stay extended for Alone to follow.
A series of cooperative puzzles follows – a pressure-switch-operated gate, a makeshift elevator, and a ladder from above. When they’re reunited, they pull out a plank to enter a room where things are a little more ominous.
There’s a figure tied up in a chair, with a raven perched upon its head, holding a key. Low fires an arrow at the raven, which drops the key. They use it to open the door they had previously passed, and suddenly stumble up a giant hand crashed through a wall, which suddenly moves as a giant arises and gets up to walk. The giant is referred to as ‘MONSTER BABY’ by the demoist.
The children their way back into the dusty town, climb a large ladder, and make their way down a zipline into another building. They discover a trapdoor which they both jump up and down on to break through to the lower level, but when they get there, the giant baby hand crashes through the wall and they make a run for it.
Low and Alone eventually get to a room where the Monster Baby’s eye suddenly peers through a hole in the wall, and transforms into a spotlight beam that glares into the room, requiring Low and Alone to stealthily hide behind obstacles and move quickly when the baby’s gaze isn’t on them.
The demo then skips ahead, where Low and Alone find themselves in the catacombs of the Necropolis, a much darker environment, filled with quicksand that the two children struggle to move through.
As they move through a dungeon area, a giant Rhinoceros Beetle comes in. Low tries to shoot it down with his bow, but it gets back up shortly afterwards. He does it again, but this time Alone moves in quickly to slam her wrench into the bug when it’s downed. A few more beetles fly onto the scene and the two children make quick work of them in this manner.
The kids climb up a wall to make their way back above ground, only to get a much better glimpse of the hideous Monster Baby as it stomps past in the background. They make their way to a room where they break open a cabinet and find a couple of umbrellas made from ravens’ feathers, which they use in tandem with a fan to float up to a higher level, and then glide across a windy gap between buildings.
They make their way into an alley and avoid another very close encounter with Monster Baby by hiding behind a box. When they think they’re safe, they move on. But when they reach the next room the Monster Baby pulls the roof off and moves to grab them. Before the baby’s hand can crush them, the scene suddenly cuts to Low and Alone sitting on a clinical-looking bed, as a dark shroud envelops them.
Little Nightmares 3 is slated for release in 2024 on PC, PS5, PS4,
